Spending our last day at Louis’ hunting lodge

Sunday, August 2, 2015. The grand palais of Versailles started out as a hunting lodge for Louis XIII. His son just got a bit carried away with making additions. Anne Mei and I thought we were going to catch the regional rail line to Versailles at the Musée d’Orsay, but found to our chagrin that that and all the stations inside central Paris were closed for work at this time. We walked over to the Concorde Metro stop and took the Metro to Javel, where the regional line to Versailles is starting during the construction. Not willing to spend two hours waiting in the slowly snaking lines to get into the Palais, we opted to visit the gardens. In keeping with most of this trip, the afternoon was extremely hot and dry. The shaded lanes, however, were pleasant. We enjoyed the vistas, the statuary, and the flower gardens on the North Parterre.

Our transportation to Charles De Gaulle Airport picks us up at 10 a.m. tomorrow. I’m not planning to write about that trip unless something of note happens. Future blog posts, therefore, will focus on the next big transition in our lives. Anne Mei moves into her dorm at Syracuse University on August 26.

Once again I’m at a point where I ask “Where did all the time go?” And once again I’m grasping to hold on to moments that have slipped away instead of enjoying the present moment of waiting for Anne Mei so we can go down to breakfast together.